The Mayo Clinic Diet is a lifestyle program for weight loss made by Mayo Clinic health professionals. The Mayo Clinic Diet is an ultimate approach to assist you maintain a healthy weight and improve your health. The Mayo Clinic Diet uses a guide known as the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid that can help you make smart eating choices and encourage your daily activity 1 .
About The Mayo Clinic Diet 
The purpose of this diet is to help you find a way of eating that you could enjoy for a lifetime and help you lose weight. The Mayo Clinic Diet will help you learn how to develop healthy lifestyle habits and to choose healthy foods and servings so that you could maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime. This diet claims that creating healthy eating habits along with exercise can reduce the risk of many weight-related health issues, such as sleep apnea, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes.
The Mayo Clinic Diet is developed and authorized by Mayo Clinic, based on clinical experience and research 2 . This diet has 2 main parts:
- Lose It!
“Lose it” a 2-week phase which allows you to start up your weight loss, losing around 6-10 pounds (2.7- 4.5 kilograms) in a healthy way. You focus on lifestyle habits in this phase. You learn how to break 5 unhealthy habits, add 5 healthy habits, and adopt another 5 extra healthy habits. This stage also includes getting no less than 30 minutes of exercise or physical activity each day.
- Live It!
This phase is a lifetime approach to health and diet. In this stage, you learn more about menu planning, portion sizes, food choices, and sticking to healthy habits. You carry on stable weight loss of 1 t-2 pounds (0.5-1 kilogram) weekly until you reach your aim weight. You could maintain your aim weight permanently by continuing the healthy habits you adopted. In this phase, you also learn how to develop lasting healthy eating patterns and how to set a goal weight. Regular exercise remains a vital part of this stage.
What to eat?
The Mayo Clinic Diet gives you numerous food choices within 6 food groups:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Whole grains
- Unsaturated fats such as nuts and olive oil
- Lean proteins such as fish and beans
- Sweets, in some small amounts
You can also eat your favorite foods like pizza, just not all the time and not the whole pie.
What to avoid?
You cannot drink alcohol during the first phase (known as Lose It!). Afterward, you can drink a little bit of alcohol: averagely – around 75 calories per day,
The Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid
The Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid is the center for the Mayo Clinic Diet. The pyramid illustrates the significance of balance between eating healthy foods and physical activity.
Healthy foods and portions
The focus of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid is eating generous amounts of healthy foods which have a small number of calories in a large size of food, especially vegetables, and fruits.
This diet teaches you how to plan meals and estimate portion sizes. The Mayo Clinic Diet does not focus on counting calories, nor does it oblige you to reduce certain foods.
Physical activity
This diet promotes healthy eating, as well as regular exercise and physical activity. When you’re active, the body uses calories (energy) to work, assisting to burn the calories you take in. If you have a medical condition or you’ve been inactive, consult your GP before starting some physical activity program.
The Mayo Clinic Diet vouch for getting no less than 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise each day, and even more workout for further health benefits.
The Mayo Clinic Diet: Daily Menu, Sample
The Mayo Clinic Diet offers several calorie levels. Here is a look at a 1200 calorie-per-day menu, which follows the Mayo Clinic Diet eating plan:
- Breakfast: A fruit yogurt parfait (1 serving fruit with 1 cup fat-free yogurt).
- Lunch: 1 serving pasta and tuna salad (mix 4 cups cooked pasta, 1 can water-packed tuna, 4 tbsp. low-calorie mayonnaise, and 2 cups diced zucchini and carrots – serves 4); and 1 small orange.
- Dinner: 1/3 of a 12-inch crust pizza; salad (2 tbsp. fat-free salad dressing, 2 cups lettuce with 1/2 cup red onions, mushrooms, and sliced tomatoes);
- Snack:1 apple, sliced.
You can drink a calorie-free beverage with every meal.
See also: Is Diet Soda Bad for You? Does it Actually Help You Lose Weight? Here is the Answer!
Benefits of The Mayo Clinic Diet
Weight loss: The Mayo Clinic Diet suggests that you could lose 6 – 10 pounds (2.7 – 4.5 kg) in the preliminary 2-week Lose It! phase. Moreover, you can lose 1-2 pounds (0.5-1 kg) per week during the lifetime Live It! maintenance stage until you reach the goal weight. Many people can lose weight on nearly any diet plan which restricts calories and what you could consume — at least in the short term.
This diet can help you lose weight permanently by boosting you to make smarter portion and food choices, developing healthy lifestyle habits (as not eating while you watch TV), and exercising.
Other health benefits: Since the Mayo Clinic Diet encourages eating fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, it could help prevent diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease.
Individuals who already suffer from heart disease will also benefit because this kind of diet is considered “heart-healthy”.
However, if you already have health issues, definitely check in with your GP before starting any diet.
Rankings
38 diets were estimated with input from a panel of health professionals. The Mayo Clinic Diet ranked #4 in Best Diabetes Diets 3 .
Conclusion:
The Mayo Clinic Diet is supported by many health professionals, because it emphasizes balanced eating and also encourages you to exercise, which is vital to being in the great shape you can be.
If you are a committed person, this diet may be a great choice for you.